Participant Privacy Notice

Who we are

Pye Tait Limited, trading as Pye Tait Consulting, is a private company offering consultancy and research services, registered in England with the company number 04001365. Our postal address is: Royal House, 110 Station Parade, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 1EP. Our registered office address is: 5 Merus Court, Meridian Business Park, Leicester, LE19 1RJ. We have been trading as such since 1991, have been registered for ISO9001 since 1999 and have been a Market Research Society Company Partner since 2013.

The Privacy Notice and how it relates to you

You are likely to be reading this Privacy Notice because you have either taken part in one of our research surveys or are considering taking part. The Notice explains what personal data we will collect from you in relation to the survey and what we will do with it.

In addition to the information stated in this Privacy Notice, Pye Tait Ltd is bound by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct (http://www.mrs.org.uk) and we are wholly committed to meeting the relevant requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation on data privacy.

Please read this Notice to ensure that you are happy with how its contents impact on you. Participation in our research surveys is entirely voluntary, and if you have participated in a survey, we will take it to mean that you agree with the terms of this Notice. However, if you are not happy with the terms of this Notice you should not participate in the survey, or if you have already participated you are entitled to ask that part or all of your survey form/interview and/or personal details be destroyed or deleted, and we will carry out such a request. We tell you below how to contact us.

Why have we contacted you and where did we get your details?

We carry out market and social research on behalf of our clients to gather and present the opinions of the research participants directly to the people making decisions about products, services or public policy. We never sell, market or promote any products or services that might be offered by our clients.

You will have been invited to take part in a survey through one of the following routes:

You have a relationship with our client, and they have provided us with your details solely for the purpose of conducting this research survey;
We were provided your contact details by a third party, such as a legitimate database provider or a market research panel company who have provided us with your details for the purpose of conducting research only.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect information through surveys conducted on the telephone and online and from registration forms posted on our website. We might also collect feedback and information from focus groups or workshops.

We only collect personal data about you that is relevant to the purpose of the particular survey we are conducting at that time. Personal data means your name, address, email address, telephone number or online identifier. Personal data can also include (but is not limited to) information about your age and gender, race or ethnicity, your religion or beliefs, political opinions, trade union membership and health.

Even if a question must have an answer (i.e. if the question is mandatory) you may choose not to share personal data with us by selecting the ‘don’t know’ or ‘prefer not to say’ option.

You should note that ‘personal data’ are only personal when they are accompanied by a means of identifying an individual. For example, your gender is ‘personal data’ when attached to your name but is not personal data when your name is deleted and the data are used in aggregated form. Pye Tait always deletes identifiers BEFORE undertaking analysis.

We will protect the confidentiality of your information in accordance with our normal data handling procedures and all legal requirements. We will not use it for any purposes other than those which are set out in the surveys and in this Notice.

How do we use your personal data?

Your personal data are always anonymised when used in our analyses. The aggregated data may be used in the following ways:

For market research purposes, this includes carrying out analysis and producing reports on behalf of the client who has commissioned the survey.
For quality control purposes, for example if one of our interviewers has called on you, we may telephone you to check that the interviewer conducted the interview in a professional and polite manner.
To provide you with survey research results if you request them when offered.
To notify you if you win one of our prize draws (if this was part of the survey you took part in).

In addition, if we want to use your personal data for any other specific purpose not specified in this Notice, this will be explained to you as part of the survey, and we will ask for your consent to do this.

What information is shared with the client who has commissioned the survey?

Typically survey results will be reported back to our clients in an aggregated format. By that we mean that your responses will be combined with all other responses we have collected and shown as a total combined number or a percentage of the total. Unless you specifically agree to such, no identifiers are retained, and all data we share with our clients are anonymised.

How we keep your data secure

We are committed to keeping personal data secure and take all reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse or alteration.

Only authorised Pye Tait Ltd employees, associates and contractors or partners carrying out authorised business functions are allowed to access data or databases held by Pye Tait Ltd.

We inform and update our employees about our policies and procedures regarding confidentiality, security and privacy, and we emphasise the importance of complying with them at all times. Our security procedures are consistent with or exceed generally accepted commercial standards used to protect personal data. Pye Tait Ltd employees are required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement in which they agree to keep all project and respondent personal data confidential.

We have contracts and agreements in place with all contractors or partners who have access to survey information which require contractors and partners to keep any information we provide to them confidential. They are not permitted to use this information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are contracted to on behalf of Pye Tait Ltd.

Where is your data processed?

All data is processed within the UK and no personal data are transferred to countries outside the UK without your explicit consent. In any instances in which your personal data might be used as part of a collaboration for research work based outside the UK, we will enter into appropriate data processing agreements with those organisations, which will specify all necessary safeguards that have to be in place to comply with the UK GDPR requirements for safeguarding personal data that is processed in territories outside the UK on the basis of rights and protections that apply to the processing of personal data in the UK. You will be informed if your personal data are to be processed outside the UK.

For how long do we keep your personal data?

We only keep your identifiable information for as long as is necessary. Once your individual identifiers have been deleted – usually within a week of the end of any data gathering exercise – we will no longer hold any data which are identifiable to any individual. If, at any time, you withdraw your consent to our processing your personal data, we will delete your personal data at that point and no copies will be held by Pye Tait Ltd.

Your rights

Your cooperation in our research surveys is voluntary at all times regardless of what the survey is about or who our client is.

You are entitled at any stage to ask that your personal data, or part, or all of the record of your survey responses be destroyed or deleted, and we will carry out such a request. This can be requested during the interview itself or afterwards (using the contact details below).

You have the right to access any personal data that we process relating to you. We will ask for verification of your identity before releasing any information to you.

In instances where surveys are taking place over a period of time, we would wish to ensure that any personal data we hold for you is accurate. Therefore, if any information you have provided changes, you have the option to let us know and we will advise at the time whether it is appropriate to update any records we hold.

If you have any complaint in relation to how we process your personal data, you are entitled to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office to review the matter. Details about how to contact them are on their website at www.ico.org.uk.

We would like to thank you for participating in our research. Rest assured, we are not trying to sell or promote anything – but only to conduct rigorous and honest research; and we promise that we will not mislead you about the nature of the research or the use which will be made of the findings.

Our reports of research findings will not personally identify you to anyone (unless, in some exceptional cases, you specifically give your consent for us to forward information to anyone else).

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or want to get in touch about a survey you have conducted with us please email: info@pyetait.com.

Effective: 12th February 2018. Reviewed: September 2023.

Any changes we may make to our Participant Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this page.